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Amazon buys video game streaming firm Twitch

Amazon.com has acquired all of live video game streaming firm Twitch’s shares for approximately US$970 million.

According to a release by Twitch in July, it had more than 55 million unique visitors who viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on the site.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

“Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community,” he said.

Twitch launched in June 2011 to focus exclusively on live video for gamers. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2014.

“Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.